Fashion

9.10.2014

By Milk Made

California Dreaming With Timo Weiland

The first thing that caught our eye at Timo Weiland was a pair of pale blue pompom earrings. The second thing? A black chiffon blouse that would definitely get you banned from Instagram. Truth be told, we couldn’t imagine a better pairing.

The juxtaposition of cotton candy dreams and just-a-little-something sexy didn’t stop there. Ladylike pencil skirts in a monochrome sea foam-like fabric were followed by cropped button-downs in an oversized Hawaiian print. We imagined a ‘60s California girl gang teaming up with the power-tripping Heathers–of course with Winona Ryder’s Veronica Sawyer in tow with the stand-out grey and white drug rug and tailored skirt combo.

We caught the brand’s creatives—Timo Weiland, Alan Eckstein, and Donna Kang—post-show to talk drawing patterns and other confectionary tales of making their SS15 collection come to life.

If you could describe this collection in a sentence, what would it be?

DK: Backyards of LA.

AE: And maybe a side note of candy!

When I think of the Timo Weiland brand, I immediately think of your remarkable array of patterns. Where did the inspiration for this season’s patterns come from?

DK: There’s graffiti from New York, graffiti is actually a big part of it. And foliage from our trip to LA.

TW: It’s not always so conceptual for us. We’re thinking of real guys and real girls. We’re thinking of something that’s going to make someone look attractive. It’s not a dreaming experience—it’s more realistic.

AE: But we are dreamers! We’re still dreaming.

TW: We’re dreamers!

DK: Yeah! (laughs)

TW: But yeah, we traveled together to LA. It seems like it’s a kind of every day place, but for us it wasn’t. We went in the dead of winter here in New York and were hanging out in our friends’ yards, and that’s really how it started. The prints started out being drawn with a Sharpie and were eventually filled in. So initially it was very much like graffiti, like tagging.

So you all do some occasional DJ-ing, how essential is music in your runway shows? Do you pick it yourselves?

DK: Absolutely essential, and we 100 percent pick it ourselves.

TW: But we’ve collaborated with a buddy of ours who’s here.

If you could dress anyone alive or dead, fictional or real, who would it be?

AE: I would say Miles Davis.

TW: I would say the same.

AE: The birth of cool, you know? He’s amazing. He’s just a bad motherfucker.